Thanks for adding your experience. People I’ve talked to often say that they like the idea of a new home but they also like a home where the kinks have already been worked out. They also get the bonus of paying a little less.

In either case, consumers can’t be expected to be experts in all the facets needed to make an informed decision: from financing and procedures to construction and inspection.

I’m an avid reader of Steven L. Smith’s home inspection blog and he writes an article about something very simple. This new home was well-built but they forgot to add insulation above the kitchen and utility room. The buyers never would have noticed this obvious defect.

Steve

Great post. There are other cautions when buying from a builder too. My short list:

- Builders often require the buyer to use their own contract (as opposed to the two commonly in use in our area, Silicon Valley), and guess who is favored?
- Builders often ask Realtors to simply “refer” the buyers to them (so the agents cannot really represent the buyer in the purchase of that new home – there is either dual agency or no representation of the buyer by the agent handling the sale)

Buyers are well advised to pay close attention to everything if they go the new homes route. One of my relatives didn’t watch the building process itself carefully and the foundation was laid and home oriented wrong! There was no fixing it.

Just ’cause it’s new won’t mean it’s perfect.

Mary